Posts in the Kony category

A whole social media campaign to get one guy doing his thing in a place few understand is actually quite tragic. The example of Kony as ‘social media activism’ – or the Kony Express as I call it – is setting a bad standanrd. Think: this Kony guy has been waging war for decades – he knows how to evade and kill and manipulate. He knows the terrain. Do the Invisible Children really believe they can capture this guy?

Not to mention, who would replace him? His replacement is probably as – if not more – psychotic and powerful than him.

The damage here, in my opinion, is that the messages eventually arrive in two extremes: a) social media (SM) is utterly ineffective and b) SM activism can change the world. Neither is realistic, but my guess is that the first is closer to the sad truth.

Perhaps SM ultimately propagates and amplifies our ignorances and misunderstandings of complex social and geopolitical matters.

I hope I’m wrong. But as the younger generation masters these technologies – as more and more of their education and knowledge of the world comes to them via SM – will they also master the arts and sciences of knowing how to effect true change?